Election Official: I Removed Info From Checks After Pureval Campaign Manager Asked If It Was Legal

The deputy director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections said this morning she blacked out the memo line on four checks after Sarah Topy, Aftab Pureval's campaign manager asked her if it was legal to do so. Sally Krisel, a long-time employee of the board and former elections director, said Thursday morning that she believed it was legal. Krisel apologized to the board of elections and elections director Sherry Poland at an "emergency meeting" of the elections board held this morning. While board members agree that Krisel was guilty of poor judgement in blacking out the checks, there is no evidence she did anything against the law. The issue is tied to a complaint filed by Mark Miller of COAST, an anti-tax and government spending group, accusing Pureval, a Democrat, of taking $30,000 from his Hamilton County Clerk of Courts campaign fund and spending in on his federal campaign to oust Republican incumbent Steve Chabot. That spending could be illegal. The Ohio Elections Commission